A lot of people may be wondering about what happens to the unclaimed dividends and shares. You may be wondering what happens to the money lost in various scams and frauds as well as wondering how to make a claim of shares from IEPF. Let’s consider that your grandparents or parents made some investments and you have no information about it. In such cases, how do you find it out and claim the shares back?
This is where an IEPF claim may come to use. In this blog, we have discussed in brief details, about all the important things you need to know about making an IEPF claim and how to get back your claim of shares from IEPF. Read on and also find out what happens to the unclaimed dividends and shares.
What is the IEPF and what role does it play in case of unclaimed dividends and shares?
IEPF refers to the Investor Education Protection Fund. It is administered by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India. Under section 125 of Companies Act 2013, the Government of India established Investor Education and Protection Fund Authority in September 2016 for the administration of IEPF. The body deals with all the unclaimed dividends and shares as well as money.
All this unclaimed money gets transferred to this regulatory body and investors can make an IEPF claim to get back the shares or dividends through a certain procedure. We will discuss the procedure of making an IEPF claim, the requirements and the kind of documents you will need to submit but before that, we must know what all the IEPF deals with.
To begin with, the IEPF authority is responsible and entrusted to make all kinds of refunds of unclaimed dividends and shares, matured deposits, as well as promoting awareness amongst investors. The investments that remain unclaimed for over seven years get transferred to the IEPF and can be retrieved through a proper IEPF claim. Let us take a look at what all gets transferred to the IEPF under such a scenario:
Unclaimed dividends and shares present in demat accounts for seven years and above.
The application money received by companies for allotment of securities and which are due for refund.
Matured debentures with companies.
Matured bank deposits.
Unpaid dividends by companies.
Interest accrued on the above funds.
Investors’ money which is recovered from fraudulent companies.
In case the dividend for any year is claimed or received by a shareholder in the course of the last seven consecutive years, then the shares are not transferred to the IEPF.
Claim of shares from IEPF: What Is The Procedure?
If you want to make a claim of shares from IEPF, the procedure is quite simple. To begin with, IEPF offers facilities to first find out any unclaimed dividends and shares and track the amount you are liable to get. Visit this link and fill in simple details like investor name, father or husband name, folio number etc.
IEPF initiates e-payment and if the shares are reclaimed, they are credited to the claimant’s Demat account upon verification. Here’s what you need to do to claim a refund:
Download the form IEPF-5 form from the IEPF website for filing the claim for refund. Read the instructions on the e-form carefully before filling the form.
After filling the form, submit the duly filled form by following the instructions given in the upload link on the website. An acknowledgement will be generated indicating the SRN on successful upload. Keep note of this SRN for future tracking.
Take a printout of the duly filled IEPF-5 form as well as the acknowledgement issued after uploading the form.
Submit the indemnity bond in original, a copy of acknowledgement and a self-attested copy of e-form along with the other documents mentioned on the portal that include:
Copy of Aadhaar Card (For Indian Nationals)
Proof of entitlement (share certificate)
Cancelled Cheque leaf
Copy of Passport, OCI and PIO card in case of foreigners and NRI
Other optional documents (if any)
Note that you will need updation of KYCs and signatures as the claims, on the basis of the concerned company’s verification report, will be refunded by the IEPF Authority in favor of claimants’ Aadhaar linked bank account.
That is all you need to do when you want to make a claim of shares from IEPF. We hope that this blog will be helpful for you to make an IEPF claim and we also hope that you now know enough about the unclaimed dividends and shares and what actually happens to them.
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